NEWMARK:

Semantic and
Communicative
Translation

Prepared by: Norelie T. Antecristo

PETER NEWMARK
Was an English
professor of
translation at
the University
of Surrey.
Known work:
A Textbook of Translation
(1988)
 Newmark departs from Nida’s
receptor-oriented line, feeling that
the success of equivalent effect is
‘illusory’.

Conflict of loyalties

gap between emphasis on source

and target language will always
remain as the overriding problem
in translation theory and practice
Semantic and
Communicative
Translation
Newmark’s Nida’s
Semantic
Formal equivalence
Translation

Communicative
Dynamic equivalence
Translation
Semantic Translation

Attempts to render, as closely as the semantic and

syntactic structures of the second language allow,
the exact contextual meaning of the original.

communicative Translation

Attempts to produce on its readers an effect as

close as possible to that obtained on the readers of
the original.
 Example:
Source text She sleeps like an oil.
Semantic Translation

• Napakahimbing niyang matulog.

• Tulog na tulog siya kung matulog.

Communicative Translation

• Para siyang mantika kung matulog.

 Semantic
VS Literal
Translation Translation

Connotative Word for word

meaning

Metaphors

EXAMPLE ST: Tengang kawali

ST: Gapabungol-bungol LT: Dalunggang kalaha

ST: pretending not to hear LT: Ear frying pan

 Semantic
Parameter
translation
Focus on the thought
processes of the transmitter
Transmitter/ as an individual; should only
addressee focus help TT reader with
connotations if they are a
crucial part of message
Communicative
translation
Subjective, TT reader
focused, oriented towards
a specific language and
culture

Remains within the SL Transfers foreign elements

Culture
culture into the TL culture

Not fixed in any time or

Ephemeral and rooted in
local space; translation
Time and origin its own contemporary
needs to be done anew with
context
every generation
Relation to ST Always ‘inferior’ to ST May be 'better' than the
ST;
If ST language norms
Respect for the form of the
deviate, then this must be
Use of form of SL SL, but overriding
replicated in TT; ‘loyalty’
‘loyalty’ to TL norms
to ST author
Smoother, simpler, dearer,
More complex, awkward,
more direct, more
Form of TL detailed, concentrated;
conventional; tendency to
tendency to overtranslate
undertranslate
For the vast majority of
For serious literature,
texts, e.g. non-literary
autobiography, ‘personal
writing, technical and
Appropriateness effusion’, any important
informative texts,
political (or other)
publicity, standardized
statement
types, popular fiction

Accuracy of
Accuracy of reproduction
Criterion forevaluation communication of ST
of the significance of ST
message in TT